field trippin’
If you live within an hour’s drive of Brevard, North Carolina and you have never visited the Pisgah Wildlife Education Center – you have been missing a jewel of a place.
Tucked in at the base of two mountains and surrounded by streams and the lovely Davidson River, the Center has been one of our family’s favorite field trip destinations for several years.
Can you ever really go wrong with mountain air, sunshine and outdoor education?
Oh – and all of the classes are offered at no cost.
No cost!
Because of life and circumstances, this week was our first trip up there this school year.
And to add to the luckiness of the day, our car couldn’t help but turn left at the road heading to our favorite apple orchard – Skytop – for a last of the season stop.
I grabbed a giant stash of Arkansas Black apples to store throughout the winter. (I’ve never thought to try that before but the apple gurus say they are long-storing apples and will last just fine in cool steady temperatures. And our unheated laundry room’s winter climate seems to fit that formula perfectly.)
Oh – and of course I purchased a steamy hot, just baked dozen apple cider donuts for my passengers and I. We enjoyed a sweet farewell to our fall treats. And now we just have to wait until next August to taste the goodness again.
At Pisgah we divided the kids into two classes. Bigs tromped off through the fields to archery class. Littles headed to the classroom first for trout class.
Archery was a giant score for our kids who are all lately in love with crossbows and early American history and Native American costumes. And, like so many ventures, they discovered it was harder than it appears.
Our friend Torrye, who experienced her first Skytop donut earlier, joined us and headed over to the archery class to help monitor.
Trout class was busy and educational and entertaining. A fabulous teacher led our under 7 crowd through the fish’s life cycle and showed them eggs and fingerlings and small fry. We played a fish game outside to learn about how natural prey are good for the trout population but river pollutants are not. And then, of course, we gave the bazillion trout swimming in the fish hatchery piles of smelly trout chow.
All of homeschool co-op pals joined us, making it even a more exciting field trip than usual because all of the buddies were together.
After target practice and trout feeding (and a whirlwind purchase for stocking stuffers of dozens of nearly free items in the gift shop that is going to be permanently closed so all items were 75% off) we headed off the mountain.
I decided to take a different path home. One – because I don’t like driving the same road twice. And two – because the views down the mountain are worth the winding roads and hairpin turns.
Oh – and three – because the other direction allows me to stop at Caeser’s Head, this breathtakingly gorgeous state park where you can see the Blue Ridge escarpment. (I’ve been treasuring this spot since we first moved farther south five years ago.)
Goodness. It did not disappoint.
November’s field trip. A+.
